How to approach humans? strategies for social robots to initiate interaction

• Published in: 2009 4th ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction (HRI) pp. 109 - 116
• Main Authors: Satake, Satoru, Kanda, Takayuki, Glas, Dylan F., Imai, Michita, Ishiguro, Hiroshi, Hagita, Norihiro
• Format: Conference Proceeding
• Language: English
• Published: New York, NY, USA ACM 09.03.2009; IEEE
• Series: ACM Conferences
• Subjects: Anticipation; Approaching behavior; Human-centered computing > Human computer interaction (HCI) > Interaction paradigms; Humans; Legged locomotion; Position-based Interaction; Robot sensing systems; Senior citizens; Trajectory; approaching behavior; position-based interaction; anticipation
• ISBN: 1605584045; 9781605584041
• ISSN: 2167-2121
• DOI: 10.1145/1514095.1514117

This paper proposes a model of approach behavior with which a robot can initiate conversation with people who are walking. We developed the model by learning from the failures in a simplistic approach behavior used in a real shopping mall. Sometimes people were unaware of the robot's presence, even when it spoke to them. Sometimes, people were not sure whether the robot was really trying to start a conversation, and they did not start talking with it even though they displayed interest. To prevent such failures, our model includes the following functions: predicting the walking behavior of people, choosing a target person, planning its approaching path, and nonverbally indicating its intention to initiate a conversation. The approach model was implemented and used in a real shopping mall. The field trial demonstrated that our model significantly improves the robot's performance in initiating conversations.